Rafał Brzoska Foundation. Good morning, Maks. Good morning, sir. So, to put it this way, we've already been together a bit in the foundation, and maybe here's a short question: could you introduce yourself—what do you do, what are your passions, what do you study, what do you do outside of your studies, so that those who watch us and who I hope will follow the stories of all of you, can learn a bit more about you.
Sure. First of all, I'm a student at SWPS. I study Management and Leadership.
I'm starting my first year of my Master's now. I've already finished my Bachelor's. What do I do? I co-create the foundation, and I'm also working in the startup space, developing my own startup. I'm now kind of pushing it forward, so to speak.
Will you tell us a bit more about the foundation, the startup?
Yes, sure, no problem. When it comes to the foundation, we support young people entering the job market, and also companies that need to take these young people in—bringing in new ideas. We often implement campaigns, marketing campaigns, for example—we had, for instance, an event—more of an ideathon—that helped companies. And as for my startup, I simply implement ads in chatbots and AI apps, and it's going to be a very interesting direction of development.
I'm a bit afraid that it might overshadow your foundation work, but maybe you'll manage to balance both. Exactly. Why are you developing both paths? Where did the idea come from—both for the foundation and for the startup? It all clearly takes a lot of time, I assume, that you invest in it—so how do you reconcile one with the other?
I think that from the beginning of my development path I've already been doing these two things. I simply can't completely let go of one of them. And for me, social activity is just ingrained. I have to do something—whether it's volunteering or my own foundation. And also the business sphere, where you can improve something, make something better, help—or in some way, as well, since it often has a social function too. And I think combining these two things gives the greatest satisfaction I can have in life—even if it means I have little time, it's still very satisfying.
Right—so where did the startup idea come from? What was the inspiration?
I think my inspiration was, first of all, that we use LLMs and chats nonstop here, and sooner or later—whether search engines or anything else—they will decline, and they already are, and quite significantly. They're declining—very significantly. And sooner or later companies will have to reach the customer where that customer actually is. So that was exactly my—
So you're riding that AI wave I've been talking about for a long time. I understand you're already turning it into something concrete. I really like that.
Exactly. I'm selling shovels when there's a gold rush.
Yes, very good, very good. You represented Poland in China at the Seeds for the Future Grand Finale. Could you tell us what that contest, that competition was about, and what it felt like that you could represent Poland?
When it comes to Seeds for the Future, it was one of the best competitions I remember, because it combined technology—which I love—and social action, where we created an impact solution, something social. In our case, it was a tool for patients and caregivers of people with Alzheimer's, which would detect, for example, falls, a fire, or anything else, and immediately inform the appropriate person. Yes—the caregiver. As for the feeling—until I was in China, I didn't feel it that strongly. I remember that back at home I was thinking: do I have the Polish flag, do I have an RBF pin—and only once I was in China, with people from France, Germany, and so on, and then me from Poland—this swagger—and this instant pride, like, 'Oh my God, this isn't just some student project—this is real.' And it hit me—wow—that I'm able to and I can represent our country somewhere abroad.
Were there any rankings? Which projects were rated best, worst? How did you do?
In our case, we had an international cohort—the first one launched. In that cohort there were people from Poland. We had a dozen or so projects from Poland, Congo, Belgium, and other countries as well. And ultimately our project won first place. Thanks to the fact that I became a laureate and was selected as the best leader there, I went to the Grand Finale in China, where we could represent—and where I could represent—Poland.
Great. How long did the competition last?
It lasted about a week—within a week, with random people, we met, created something cool from scratch, new inspirations—something caught your eye. Yes, yes. I think it was wonderful, and there were many ecological projects—more solutions related to water—cleaning, water purification—and it was full of these wonderful projects that were socially supportive—very social.
So the social impact element was, I assume, key across all those projects?
I think in many projects it was very key.
